


Bleeding Hearts 2

by fluffehnyan666



Category: Naruto
Genre: Childhood Trauma, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:02:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28799526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffehnyan666/pseuds/fluffehnyan666
Summary: The continuation of Bleeding Heart.I'm new and a dumb dumb so I haven't figured out how to post them as chapters, so I apologise.Fluffy confessions and good times.I did my best to justify these two hardass badasses acting soft.That's the keyword of this series.Soft.There are a lot of feelings.tw:mentions of past physical abuse
Relationships: Hidan/Kakuzu (Naruto)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Bleeding Hearts 2

**Author's Note:**

> I was overwhelmed by the lovely reception and all your kind words on the first part!Thank you all so much <3 <3 *cries*  
> I wasn't planning on making it this long but I love these guys so much I HAD TO give them some sort of backstory.Besides, what's a Naruto story without 'a monologue of my tragic backstory?' xD 
> 
> Also I didn't want them to feel out of character so I felt like I needed some solid reason for the softness, so get ready for lots of *f~e~e~l~i~n~g~s*  
> Litte sidenote within the notes: If you're starved for content on them check out the 'Creation of the Akatsuki', a short episode animated just like the anime that appeared in the Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Revloution video game!  
> Enjoy (ɔ◔‿◔)ɔ ♥

Towards dawn when the air got warmer and Kakuzu felt Hidan stir in his arms he quickly put him down before the other could wake up. When he finally opened his eyes Kakuzu asked:

‘How’r you feeling?’

‘Half-dead.’

‘Only half? That’s good.Can you move the leg?’

‘I can do better.’

Hidan grinned and had that twinkle in his eye that meant he was about to do something stupid.That childish cocky smile always made his comapnion freeze for a second and caused his throat to clench.With an exhausted grunt Hidan pushed himself into a standing position and continued to smile at his partner.

‘And here you thought I was dying.It takes more than that to put me down.’

Pushing down the joy at seeing Hidan doing so unexpectedly well, his partner asked trying his best to sound unimpressed:

‘You can stand.But can you walk?’

Confidently, Hidan took one step forward, but when it was the injured leg’s turn to bear the weight he fell to one knee.

‘FUCK!’

Resisting the urge to help him up, Kakuzu pulled a map out of his cloak and started studying it. _If he doesn’t ask for help I’m not going to baby him. Can’t have him getting any ideas._

By the time he looked up from the map, his partner had struggled himself into a standing position once more.

‘We need to get away from here and hide until you’re combat ready again. We can’t afford to be ambushed like that.’ Kakuzu said, but the other interrupted him:

‘I am ready!What’s one leg? Pff, if I get dismembered I’m just as deadly as when I’m whole!I can still kick ass! I’ll kick your ass if you don’t stop patronising me!’

Pushing down the bubbling anger, Kakuzu refused to get into an argument about how many limbs Hidan could function without and, folding his map away instead asked:

‘There’s an inn about five miles from here. Think you can make it?’

‘Watch me.’Hidan spat and started walking with shaky steps, then stopped and asked, slightly embarrassed:

‘Uh..which way are we going?’

Grateful for the mask that hid the smile spreading across his face, Kakuzu picked up and rested Hidan’s forgotten scythe on his shoulder and started walking in the opposite direction.

‘This way.’

⏭

They found the medium-sized wood-panelled inn and once in their room, Kakuzu went to shower first to allow the other to rest after the tiresome journey.So far he always got them separate rooms but seeing his usually energetic partner limp and breathe heavily just from walking made him uneasy. _The thought of letting him out of my sight now puts a lump in my throat_. He thought as hot water ran down his back. _Damn it, I’m getting soft in my old age.Who knows, maybe a change is long overdue._ Even he was getting sick of the man he was, cold and empty but for the constant frustration.

Getting out to dress he looked in the mirror for the first time in a long while.Sure, he looked 30 at most instead of triple that number but what did that matter when he looked like an insane map of scars and huge stitches. Simply feeling the masks on his back reminded him of his fiancee’s disgust every time.Commanding the creatures to get out and stay there, he finished dressing, but left his mask behind. _I just need a break from them._ Glancing back up at the mirror and seeing the stitches visible on his face he thought bitterly. _As if that made you any more normal.You’ll never be normal again.And you have no one to blame but yourself._

Disgusted, he turned away and went back into their room.And froze with his hand on the door.

Hidan was stretched out on the floor, run through by his black spear, eyes closed.

‘What the HELL are you doing?’

‘What? I missed out like two whole days of prayer, I have to make up for them.’

‘You know bloodstains are impossible to get out!What will the staff think? We’re supposed to be hiding! This is the middle of nowhere, they’ll be talking about the weird ninjas who left a blood pool in their room for the year to come! You know those Waterfall ninja will never stop looking for me until I’m dead and now you left them a big fat clue!’ with mounting anger Kakuzu was almost shouting by the end.

‘And whose fault is it that I had to miss out on prayers in the first place?’his partner shot back.

Anytime Hidan brought up his religion, Kakuzu’s blood boiled.He could not understand how he could be so devoted, so reverent of something he couldn’t be sure existed. Maybe he was a little jealous, too.The only time he saw peace on Hidan’s face was when he was either asleep or praying while Kakuzu had forgotten what peace even felt like.

‘Whose fault is it that we could be attacked at any time anywhere?I’m sick of looking over my shoulder every day!I’m sick of not having a restful sleep because every little sound wakes me up knowing that the enemy could be one of those Waterfall ninja who know they’re coming for immortals and are better prepared than the average enemy!’Hidan continued.

Kakuzu already felt guilty enough for that, but hearing it from Hidan cut straight to the bone.He went over and yanked the spear out of the priest.

‘Ow!Hey!What do you think you’re doing?’

‘Why couldn’t it wait?Until we were out of here, until……...until…’

‘Until what?’ Hidan asked indignantly.

‘Until your leg healed!And you got your strength back.’ he said quietly, trying to calm down.His companion was taken aback by the unexpected tone.

‘I’m fine.Besides….I’m not in danger of dying anymore. What do you care all of a sudden?’Hidan asked sarcastically.

Kakuzu said nothing.Folding the spear and putting it away into an inside pocket of his cloak he left the room in a hurry before he could do more damage.

Lucky for him the parlour of the inn was empty, so ignoring the wide-eyed look the waiter gave when she saw his face, he ordered something to drink.He didn’t count how many he had, but when he stood up and the small table before him suddenly seemed to sprout a shadow clone he realised maybe it was too many.Upon reaching their room and finding it empty he panicked. _Now you’ve done it. Not that I expected this to end any other way.All the other partners they gave me, I killed them, because I couldn’t stand them.Or I couldn’t stand the fact that they didn’t stand me.This one I can’t kill.I don’t want to.So it was only normal for him to have enough of my shit and leave._

With unsure steps, he went to the window and looked out.

Huh, so this place has a hotspring.And there was his partner, leaning against the edge of the pool, arms up on the rim of small rocks, eyes closed.

🔺

Hearing footsteps on the white gravel, Hidan opened one eye.Seeing his partner with a strange look on his face he opened the other one.He prepared to ask what the other wanted, but the never-before-seen sadness on Kakuzu’s face made him hesitate.

‘I uh...just wanted to check on your stitches.I didn’t…. have the means to wash the wound back...back in the forest so I’m afraid it might be infected.And since you...you heal fast they gotta...come out anyway so the...the holes can close up.’Kakuzu finally said, clearly struggling to find his words and doing his best not to sound drunk, dressed in a towel and holding up a small medical kit in his hand.

Hidan was still mad at him for getting lectured and was about to tell him to get his drunk ass to bed and leave him alone, but his partner wasn’t lucid enough to hide his emotions for the first time since they met.Was that….shyness and regret in his voice?So instead of sending him away he said:

‘Yeah, okay.’ _I’ve been knocking on those walls of his for months.Maybe this time I can get a peek at what’s behind them._

Kakuzu got in the water and let out an annoyed growl.

‘Shit, that burns.’

Hidan could not suppress a giggle.

‘This is funny to you?Sit up on the edge and shut up.’

‘Oh come on, isn’t that what you’re supposed to have at a pool? Fun?Did you ever have fun in your life or you don’t even know what fun is?’Hidan retorted playfully but did as he was told.

With the wound now out of water, Kakuzu looked for the end of the thread and slowly commanded it to loosen and slither back into his own body through the seams on his arm.Then he opened the small box he brought, taking out a piece of gauze gently dabbing away at the dry blood around the cut.Through all this he violently fought against the tightening of his throat and racing heart at feeling the soft skin of his partner’s thigh teasing his fingertips.

‘You know who you remind me of?My grandpa, he kind of raised me.’Hidan said quietly.Upon seeing Kakuzu glaring up at him he quickly clarified:

‘Oh no, not because he was old.He was just the opposite of you.Mean when drunk, nice when not.He rarely wasn’t drunk, though.’

Kakuzu fought against snapping back that he’s wasn’t drunk right now and instead asked:

‘He raised you?What about your parents?’

Hidan gave a bitter smile.

‘My dad kicked me out of the house when I failed my

[Chūnin](https://naruto.fandom.com/wiki/Ch%C5%ABnin_Exams) exams.They always struggled with money, so they thought if I could get a good position as a ninja that I’d solve all their problems.Pff!As if I would’ve given them anything even if I did make it to jonin or something.Until I was 13 all I heard every day was how it was my fault they were in deep shit and how it was my job to get them out of it.So, when I failed my exams my dad got so angry he kicked me out.My mother found me crying in the attic that night and she told me ‘Go live with your grandfather he’ll take care of you.’You know, in that moment I thought she’d forgiven me and was just trying to help me until my dad calmed down. But then you know what she said?She said ‘Two failures should get along just fine.’

‘I’m sorry.’Kakuzu said quietly.’So what did you do?’

‘What I was told of course.The other option was to live on the streets.Turns out I’d only fallen from the frying pan into the fire.The old man was a mean drunk.When my dad beat me he usually had a reason, or so he said.The old man didn’t need a reason.’

‘Why didn’t you…?’

‘Kill him?I was a late bloomer, still a scrawny kid at 13.A childhood of eating nothing but rice can do that to you, I guess.And when I did start growing and he realised it wasn’t much longer until it was my turn to punch, he sold me to those fucking cultists.And so I fell from the frying pan into the fire and now finally straight into hell.’

‘I thought you liked your religion.’

‘Yeah I do.The cultists were monsters though. And I say that having been called a monster myself.They kept me and other kids nobody wanted locked-up like animals, not even straw to sleep on.Every day they took 2 or 3 of us to do their rituals and experiments.Every day it lasted into the night and we went to sleep and woke up to the sound of other kids’ screams.I was so scrawny that I managed to slip through the bars one time.They were so surprised it was almost funny to them, so they gave me random jobs to do.Mostly steal from the village, they weren’t exactly well-funded either.

‘Why didn’t you run away?’

‘I thought about it but I also thought I was off the chopping block now that I had a job in the group.And I did make some friends with the other kids.So I trained every day when I could,mostly at night when no one was keeping an eye on me.I remembered everything I could from what they taught me at the academy and did my training properly this time.I was going to end them all, the whole bunch of sickos.They caught onto me though.I got jumped by like 8 of them at once and was thrown back into a cell.’

Hidan laughed.

‘The bastards did the immortality ritual they were researching all these years on me.Imagine their surprise when it worked.And my delight.They’d just signed their own death warrants.So to finally answer your question, yeah I love my religion.Lord Jashin chose me of all of them to bestow his gift of immortality.Me, nobody special, the nobody of the village.And he gave me the gift of vengeance.’ he said finally, looking up at the sky.

All these years Kakuzu thought he had it bad.But growing up he had parents.Up until he started collecting hearts he had friends, he was accepted, he always belonged somewhere,to someone.

‘That must’ve been awful.I’m very sorry you had to go through that..I...I didn’t know.I never would’ve imagined.’With great effort he let go of his ego and said, with deep regret in his voice:

‘I’m so sorry for the times I hit you.’ He couldn’t even look Hidan in the eye anymore.

‘It’s alright.When they hurt me they were never sorry.There was nothing but contempt and hate in their eyes.’ Hidan reached down and putting his hand under his chin he gently guided his partner to look back up at him.’I don’t see hatred in yours though.Not even when you’re angry with me.’

Kakuzu froze at being touched.Mind blank, all he could do was stare at his partner’s face.It was still unusually pale from the massive blood loss, but his eyes were soft and shining with what might have been tears.

The alcohol was wearing off, and he tried snapping out of his stupor. _This isn’t real.I’m dreaming.I got drunk and I fell asleep and now I’m dreaming._

‘Say something damnit.’Hidan said when the silence stretched on with an expression so soft it made Kakuzu feel like sinking into the ground when he finally said:

‘No.’ and gently taking the other’s hand by the wrist, he removed it from his face.His heart clenched at the way Hidan's slender hand fit into his own meaty palm.

‘No?’ Hidan asked, confused, a touch of pain in his voice.

‘No, you’re right I don’t hate you.And you don’t deserve to be hated, you deserve all the affection in the world.ButI can’t give it to you.I’m a monster.You’ve had enough monsters in your life.’

Hidan looked down, flushing a little with guilt:

‘You know, when we first met I thought so too, that you were the next monster I’d have to deal with.But you’ve changed.You don’t hit me anymore and only get mad when there’s something else going on, so you’re not _really_ mad at me.At least it didn’t feel that way.Am I wrong?’

Kakuzu let go of the other's hand and took a step back.Blood was rushing through his head from the alcohol and hot water and he was terrified of saying something he might regret.

'You're not wrong.I changed and I have you to thank for that.Or to blame. I still don't know if it's a good thing.Caring too much about someone turned me into this.The mistakes I've made since then haunt and hunt me to this day and yesterday the consequences of my mistakes got you hurt.'

Hidan slid off the edge back into the water and held both of Kakuzu's hands.

'Stop saying you're a monster, because you're not.And what happened yesterday wasn’t your fault.You know I always get overconfident when I fight.'

With a sudden movement his partner freed his hands from the other's grasp and took a step back.

'NO!LOOK AT ME!'Kakuzu said sternly, spreading his arms.'YOU DESERVE BETTER!'he almost choked on the final words, feeling like he wanted to disappear, stop existing, stop _feeling_.With the fog laid over his mind by the alcohol rapidly fading now, he felt painfully aware that he was in his underwear, every cut and scar exposed for Hidan to see.

The only lightsource being a dim half-moon, it made Kakuzu’s dark hair look almost completely black, the inky strands settling in a curve to accommodate his massive chest muscles, and his green irises almost glowing against their dark red background.Even though the stitches on his face were curved slightly upwards they did not give the impression that he was smiling, his expression always grave.To anyone else it would’ve been an intimidating sight, but Hidan wanted nothing more than to lay his head on that broad chest and feel the sturdy arms close around him, giving him warmth and safety and kiss the scars on that face, because he loved every part of him, every stitch,tattoo and cut.

Hidan wasn’t used to dealing with another’s feelings when they weren’t that easy to understand but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying, so he took a step forward.Brushing the long hair from the front onto Kakuzu’s back he laid his hands on his shoulders.

‘I’m sorry you see yourself this way.Let me show you a different way.’Hidan whispered and, moving his hands up to hold Kakuzu’s face he kissed him gently, barely touching their lips together, expecting to be pushed away.

As hard as he tried, Kakuzu couldn’t keep it together any longer. The hot water,the memory of the previous day, Hidan so close to him, touching his face, kissing him was the final gust of wind that sent his walls tumbling down in a whirlwind of dust that shook him to the core..He leaned forward, deepening the kiss and hugged Hidan close around the waist.He could feel Hidan smile, so he broke the kiss and asked:

‘Are you sure about this?’He frowned.He really thought Hidan was just messing with him as revenge for the way Kakuzu treated him at the start of their partnership, but the look on the other’s face was so happy, eager and honest, his magenta eyes soft and open looking back at him with the same adoration he’d only seen when Hidan was talking about his god.

‘Dude, I just kissed you.’he looked down and blushed a deep red.’Course I’m sure.What more proof do you need?Want me to propose or somethin’?’

Kakuzu smiled, in a way he hasn’t in a long time, from the heart.

‘Trust me, I’m not the kind of guy you want beside you for the rest of your life.’

Hidan hugged him tightly and whispered, with his head in the crook of the other’s neck:

‘Eternity with you sounds like everything I want.’

The warm breath tickling his neck sent liquid fire through Kakuzu’s entire body, but he only laid one last kiss on his partner’s head. _Huh maybe I got the hang of this self-control thing._

‘Come on let’s get some rest.’His body wanted to do so much more, but it was probably very late, judging by all the lights of the inn being out and Hidan was still not 100% okay, the area around his eyes was still a bloodless ashy grey and his lips were almost colorless like a corpse’s.

‘But I still haven't prayed properly today yet.And,’Hidan said smiling his usual devious grin’ you’re supposed to consummate a marriage, right?’

The way Hidan could switch between being shy and embarrassed to being eager and excited just made him more endearing and harder to resist.

‘That can wait.Trust me, I know what’s better for you better than you do.’ Kakuzu said playfully and picked Hidan up bridal-style and effortlessly got them out of the water.

‘Ah, come on.Can’t get it up old man, is that it?’

Kakuzu chuckled.’I’ll show you when you're fully recovered what I can do.’

Back in their room, they changed into dry clothes and went to sleep, each in their own bed for now, at Kakuzu’s request.

‘You don’t trust yourself to sleep next to me.I’m that irresistible, huh?’ Hidan asked with a cocky smile.

Kakuzu wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of admitting that he was right.

‘It’s sleep you need now, not a fuck.’

‘Yeah, yeah fine.’Hidan said, heading for the bathroom.

Kakuzu had just closed his eye when he heard the other scream:

‘AAH!HOLY SHIT!’

When Kakuzu bolted out of bed and ran over to see what happened, Hidan switched to laughing.’

‘Oh my god they scared the crap outta me.’ he said, hiding his eyes in embarrassment and continuing to chuckle.

 _Oh.Of course._ Kakuzu had forgotten about the mask creatures he’d left hidden in here in case housekeeping came in.The poor things seemed just as frightened as Hidan, huddled in a corner staring blankly at them.

Kakuzu laughed and scratched the back of his neck, embarrassed as well.

‘Sorry, I forgot about them.’he said to his partner, planting one last kiss on his forehead.’Good night.’

He commanded the hearts to return to his body and went back to sleep, resting better than he has in many long years, looking forward to tomorrow for the first time in decades.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for no smut it was getting really long and I'm smack in the middle of exam season!(which lasts almost 2 whole months at my Uni;_;)
> 
> It is coming though, I've just got to find the time to figure it out because I'm very picky about the wording used in such scenes.
> 
> Thank you again for reading!!My gay heart has grown three sizes (ɔ◔‿◔)ɔ ♥(ɔ◔‿◔)ɔ ♥


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